Real estate organisations have been affected by Facebook’s decision to ban Australian news content from its platform, with the Facebook pages of Domain, Allhomes and realestate.com.au all obstructed.
The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has also lost its Facebook presence.
President Adrian Kelly said REIA is currently assessing the situation and its impact on the industry, with Facebook considered an important marketing tool for connecting buyers with properties.
“From a real estate sales perspective, buyers will go where the properties are being advertised which could ultimately be to Facebook’s detriment,” he said.
“COVID has proven that estate agents are very quick to adapt to new technologies and that will be the case in the current environment.
“Agents need to be aware that the changes will impact on all property social media campaigns as they are considered a news outlet on the platform and so activity will be restricted,” said Mr Kelly.
Locally, the Institute’s Canberra arm, REIACT, does not appear to be obstructed, while Canberra property portal Zango’s Facebook page remains operational as at 2pm on Thursday 18 February.
Facebook’s decision has seen a ripple affect across the country today, with not only publishers seeing their content disappear but community organisations and governments, too.
The ACT Government’s page was down this morning, as was the page for ACT Health. Both have since been restored.
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